Pilot remembered as detail-oriented

As a pilot, he was careful and more serious than others about caring for his plane and planning his flights around weather and where he would stop, an airport official said.

William Michael Gilliland, 46, was an experienced pilot.

For his 30th birthday, his wife, Angie, got him his first flight lesson, and soon after in 1998 he earned his pilot’s license. Most recently, he was working on getting his instrument rating, which would certify that he could fly an aircraft using just the gauges in the plane through clouds or storms.

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